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You may not realize it, but Georgia Tech actually had a pretty fantastic recruiting weekend. No, there were no commitments. No, there were no official visits made as far as I know. However, somehow, it was a great weekend.
How, you ask? How could we have a great weekend without doing much? It's simple. It's not so much what we did that was really great, but more what others did that ended up being really positive for the Jackets.
Thursday evening, uga's Defensive Backs Coach resigned, citing "family reasons". Maybe not a huge impact by itself, but it certainly helps the cumulative effect.
I use the phrase "cumulative effect" because there's much more to this. Sunday, the school confirmed that uga Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham would be taking the DC job at Louisville.
So what we have here is two coaches from the same side of the ball leaving our in-state rival. Even more importantly, we have the two people who would most be in contact with one of our prized recruits, leaving the school that he's committed to. Remember Malkom Parrish? He's a high 4-star defensive back recruit who was said to be favoring Georgia Tech, before committing to play in Athens back in June.
Some players commit purely to a school. Most commit to coaches. I have to think that this at least makes him start listening to Georgia Tech more than he has been in the past few months.
Speaking of coaches having more importance than schools, we're not done when it comes to impactful happenings. I'm sure you heard also that Vanderbilt's James Franklin will be the next head coach of Penn State. Franklin is a notoriously great recruiter, and has won a lot of recruiting battles with Georgia Tech in the past couple of years.
With him out of the picture at Vanderbilt, the Commodores' recruiting class is beginning to hemorrhage players. One of them is said to be 4-star DT Mike Sawyers, who "opened up his recruitment" and has scheduled an official visit to the Flats for next weekend (according to Rivals, his other OV will be to Ole Miss). Also, according to his Twitter, former Vandy commit and 3-star AB/CB prospect Grant Haley has opened his recruitment up as well. He's from Atlanta's Lovett High School, and the AJC's Michael Carvell quoted him as saying, "Georgia Tech’s academic reputation speaks for itself. It’s a school that has always played in ACC Championship games, and that’s always good.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Georgia Tech is a lock for a top-25 class now, or that we'll get any of the above listed guys. All I'm saying is that a lot of things happened this weekend that may work in the Yellow Jackets' favor. Regardless of what happens though, I will tell you this...
Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be another crazy January in the world of recruiting.
Do the events of this weekend give you confidence or hope? Any reason to be excited over this, or will these coaching changes not impact the Jackets' recruiting efforts?
